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On this day: July 26

2013: Singer-songwriter and guitarist J.J. Cale, one of the originators of the "Tulsa Sound" musical style and the author of songs such as "Cocaine," "After Midnight" and "Call Me the Breeze," dies of heart failure at age 74 in La Jolla, California.

2005: The space shuttle Discovery launches, making it NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia disaster in 2003.

2000: A U.S. federal judge issues a preliminary injunction against Napster, Inc. The injunction had been requested by the Recording Industry of Association of America (RIAA). The website was ordered to cease trade in music covered by RIAA member copyrights by midnight July 28, 2000. However, an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Napster to remain in operation until the case received a full hearing. Napster would lose the case and receive another injunction in March 2001, before shutting down its entire file-sharing network in July 2001.

1992: Singer-songwriter Mary Wells, one of Motown's first singing superstars best known for songs such as "My Guy," "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "Two Lovers," dies of throat cancer at age 49 in Los Angeles, California.

1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability, is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.

1984: George Gallup, the pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, dies of a heart attack at age 82 at his summer home in Tschingel, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

1984: Convicted murderer and grave robber Ed Gein dies of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. Gein, who confessed to killing two women, gained widespread notoriety after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. His case influenced the creation of several fictional serial killers, including Norman Bates from "Psycho" and Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

1974: The artificial sweetener aspartame is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. After objections were raised about its safety, the FDA would issue a stay on Dec. 5, 1975. Following additional testing, it was approved for use in dry goods in 1981 and carbonated beverages in 1983 before being approved for use in all foods in 1996. It would go on to be first sold under the brand name NutraSweet.

1973: The martial arts action movie "Enter the Dragon" is released in Hong Kong six days after the death of its star, Bruce Lee. The movie would open in the United States on Aug. 17, 1973.

1971: Apollo 15 launches from Kennedy Space Center bound for the moon. The mission was the first of what were termed "J missions," long duration stays on the moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions. It was also the first mission where the Lunar Roving Vehicle, seen here with astronaut Jim Irwin, was used.

1965: Actor Jeremy Piven ("Entourage") is born in New York City.

1964: Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is convicted on one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail and wire fraud for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund. He would eventually receive a five-year sentence to run consecutively with an earlier eight-year sentence for attempted bribery of a grand juror in a Tennessee case. He ended up serving less than five years, with President Richard Nixon commuting his sentence to time served in December 1971.

1964: Actress Sandra Bullock, famous for movie roles in "Speed," "While You Were Sleeping," "Miss Congeniality," "Crash," "The Blind Side" and "Gravity," is born in Arlington, Virginia. Bullock won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2010 for her role in "The Blind Side."

1963: Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster. During the first year of Syncom 2 operations, NASA conducted voice, teletype and facsimile tests, as well as 110 public demonstrations to show the capabilities of this satellite and invite feedback.

1963: An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (now in the Republic of Macedonia), leaves more than 1,070 dead and another 3,000 to 4,000 people injured.

1959: Actor Kevin Spacey, an Oscar winner for "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty," is born in South Orange, New Jersey. He's also appeared in movies such as "Seven," "L.A. Confidential," "Pay it Forward" and "Superman Returns," and in the Netflix series "House of Cards."

1958: The Explorer 4 satellite is launched. Although the satellite was designed to study the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear explosions upon these belts, it was ultimately unsuccessful and ceased sending transmissions less than three months after launch.

1956: Figure skater Dorothy Hamill, the 1976 Olympic champion in ladies' singles and the 1976 World champion, is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1953: Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement. Castro, seen here after his arrest, was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for the uprising, but was released in May 1955.

1952: Eva Perón, Argentine first lady and the subject of the musical "Evita," dies from cervical cancer at age 33 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She's seen here in October 1951, by which point she was too weak to stand without husband Juan Perón's aid.

1948: President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.

1948: Baseball slugger Babe Ruth, seen here in 1921, makes his last public appearance at the New York City premiere of "Babe Ruth Story," a biopic about his own life. Shortly thereafter, Ruth returned to the hospital for the final time to resume treatment for cancer. He would die on Aug. 16, 1948.

1947: President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into law, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United States National Security Council. The bill signing took place aboard Truman's VC-54C presidential aircraft Sacred Cow (pictured), the first aircraft used for the role of Air Force One.

1945: The official results of the United Kingdom's July 5 general election are announced, with the Labour Party winning by a landslide, officially removing Winston Churchill as prime minister, although he would continue to wield power as the leader of the country's opposition party and would be re-elected as prime minister in 1951.

1945: The Potsdam Declaration, which outlines the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan during World War II, is signed in Potsdam, Germany. The declaration included the ultimatum that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction." Japan would initially reject the ultimatum, leading to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, respectively.

1945: The U.S. Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian in the Northern Marianas with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The ship would be sunk by a Japanese submarine just four days later, leading to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy.

1945: Actress Helen Mirren, an Oscar winner for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen," is born in Chiswick, West London. Mirren has also earned Oscar nominations for her roles in "The Madness of King George," "Gosford Park" and "The Last Station," and has also appeared in movies such as "Excalibur," "The Mosquito Coast," "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," "Red" and "Hitchcock."

1928: Film director Stanley Kubrick, best known for movies such as "Dr. Strangelove," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Shining," is born in The Bronx, New York. He's seen here in 1975 on the set of his movie "Barry Lyndon." Kubrick died of a heart attack at the age of 70 on March 7, 1999.

1923: Author and illustrator Jan Berenstain, best known for creating the children's book series "The Berenstain Bears" with her husband Stan Berenstain, is born Janice Grant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She died of a stroke at age 88 on Feb. 24, 2012.

1923: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, recognized as the first pitcher to save 200 games in his career and the first pitcher to appear in 1,000 games, is born in Huntersville, North Carolina. He would become one of the oldest players to have pitched in the major-leagues, retiring just 16 days short of his 50th birthday, and retired with the lowest career earned run average of any major league hurler after 1927 who pitched more than 2,000 innings. Wilhelm pitched for 10 different teams in his career, earning an All-Star berth eight times and winning a World Series title with the New York Giants in 1954. He died at age 80 on Aug. 23, 2002.

1922: Film director, screenwriter and producer Blake Edwards, best known for directing movies such as "The Pink Panther" (and seven of its sequels), "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Victor Victoria," "The Great Race" and "Days of Wine and Roses," is born William Blake Crump in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Edwards, who received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay to "Victor Victoria" and was honored with an honorary Oscar in 2004 for his body of work, died of pneumonia at age 88 on Dec. 15, 2010.

1922: Actor Jason Robards, best known for his Oscar-winning roles in "All the President's Men" (pictured) and "Julia" and his Oscar-nominated role in "Melvin and Howard," is born in Chicago, Illinois. Robards, who also was nominated for five Golden Globes and won an Emmy in five career nominations, died of lung cancer at age 78 on Dec. 26, 2000.

1921: Writer and actor Jean Shepherd, best known for the 1983 film "A Christmas Story," which he narrated and co-scripted based on his own semi-autobiographical stories, is born in Chicago, Illinois. He died of natural causes at age 78 on Oct. 16, 1999.

1909: Actress Vivian Vance, best known for her role as Ethel Mertz on the sitcom "I Love Lucy" and as Vivian Bagley on "The Lucy Show," is born Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas. She died of breast cancer and bone cancer at age 70 on Aug. 17, 1979.

1908: United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner. After several name changes, it would finally be renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935.

1895: Actress and comedian Gracie Allen, who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, is born in San Francisco, California. She died of a heart attack at age 69 on Aug. 27, 1964.

1894: Author Aldous Huxley, best known as the author of the novel "Brave New World," is born in Godalming, Surrey, England. He died of cancer of the larynx at age 69 on Nov. 22, 1963.

1875: Psychiatrist Carl Jung, who founded analytical psychology, is born in Kesswil, Switzerland. He's seen here in 1910.

1863: American statesman, politician and soldier Sam Houston, best known for his leading role in bringing Texas into the United States, dies of pneumonia at age 70 in Huntsville, Texas. The namesake for the fourth largest city in the U.S., Houston twice served as the president of the Republic of Texas, was elected to the U.S. House and Senate, and served as governor of both Texas and Tennessee, making him the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states.

1856: Writer George Bernard Shaw is born in Dublin, Ireland. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film "Pygmalion," an adaptation of his play of the same name, respectively.

1803: The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London. It is seen here in a watercolor from 1823.

1788: New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.

1775: The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress, with the first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin, taking office.

1533: Atahualpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, dies by strangulation at the hands of Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors. His death marked the end of 300 years of Inca civilization.

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